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THE  POWER  OF 
SELF-SUGGESTION 

BY 
SAMUEL   McCOMB,    D.D. 

University 
Souther 
Librar 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


flcr 


Form  L-9-10w-3,'27 


THE  POWER 
OF  SELF-SUGGESTION 


THE   POWER   OF 
SELF-SUGGESTION 


BY 


REV.  SAMUEL  McCOMB,  D.D. 

Associate   Director  of  the 
Emmanuel  Movement 


NEW   YORK 

MOFFAT,  YARD  AND  COMPANY 

1909 


Copyright,  1909,  by 

MOFFAT,  YARD  AND  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK 

All  Eights  Reserved 
Published,  May,  1909 


A\  \  3 


TO 

WILLIAM  GRAHAM 

Friend,  Teacher,  and  Critic 


A  FOREWORD 

THE  substance  of  this  little  book  has 
been  given  in  the  form  of  a  lecture.  It 
is  now  offered  to  a  wider  audience  in  the 
hope  that  it  may  prove  useful  in  helping 
some  to  know  the  power  of  a  larger  life. 

BOSTON,  April,  1909. 


THE  POWER  OF  SELF- 
SUGGESTION 


"  How  profound  are  the  sufferings  of  those 
unhappy  persons  who  allow  their  imaginations 
to  become  fixed  upon  some  disease  which 
threatens  them  or  from  which  they  even  imagine 
they  already  suffer!  .  .  .  The  physiologist 
easily  explains  this  fact  by  informing  us  that 
the  constant  transference  of  a  nervous  current 
into  any  organ  must  at  last  be  followed  by 
change  in  the  condition  of  its  nutrition  and 
consequently  by  disease.  .  .  .  And  can  we 
doubt  that  the  power  capable  of  plunging  man 
into  such  deep  distress  can  also  render  him 
happy?  If  we  are  ill  because  we  believe  our- 
selves to  be  ill,  why  should  we  not  have  the  power 
of  keeping  ourselves  in  health  by  the  firm  con- 
viction that  we  are  healthy  ?  " 

— Feuchtersleben. 

"  The  mind  is  its  own  place,  and  in  itself 
Can  make  a  heaven  of  hell,  a  hell  of  heaven." 

— Milton. 


THE    POWER    OF    SELF- 
SUGGESTION 


ONE  of  the  classical  methods  in  modern 
scientific  psychotherapy,  and  a  method 
which  is  also  unconsciously  employed  by 
unscientific  healing  cults,  is  that  which 
goes  by  the  name  of  "  suggestion."  This 
term  is  often  used  in  a  loose  and  vague 
way,  even  by  good  writers,  to  express  the 
method  by  which  one  mind  influences  an- 
other, whether  the  method  employed  is 
argument  or  explanation  or  an  idea 
offered  in  some  indirect  way,  either 
through  the  personality  of  him  who  offers 
it  or  by  some  technical  device.  The  his- 
tory of  the  word,  however,  as  well  as  sci- 
entific convenience,  indicates  that  it  should 
be  limited  in  psychotherapeutic  usage  to 
the  psychical  and  physiological  activity  of 
ideas  which  work,  not  in  the  clear  light  of 


4  THE  POWER  OF 

consciousness,  but  in  the  subconscious  men- 
tal region  that  lies  in  the  shadow.  The 
word  "  suggestion  "  comes  from  the  Latin 
through  the  French,  and  in  its  passage 
from  one  language  to  the  other  it  took  on 
a  metaphorical  meaning.  The  Latin  verb 
meant  originally  "  to  put  something  under 
something  else  " ;  then  it  came  to  signify  in 
a  general  way  "  to  offer  "  or  "  to  provide  " 
something.  The  noun  formed  from  it  in 
French  and  taken  over  into  English  signi- 
fies an  idea  offered  in  an  indirect  or  subtle 
manner.  Finally,  it  is  used  by  careful 
writers  on  psychotherapy  to  signify  an 
idea  offered  not  to  the  conscious  but  to 
the  subconscious  element  in  mind.  When 
we  try  to  persuade  a  person  or  to  re-edu- 
cate his  reason  or  his  will,  we  appeal  to 
conscious,  rational  processes.  The  ideas 
which  we  would  communicate  do  their 
work  in  the  clear  light  of  consciousness. 
When,  on  the  other  hand,  we  "  suggest  " 
to  a  person,  we  seek  to  influence  that 
region  of  the  mind  which  lies,  as  it  were, 
below  the  threshold  of  consciousness  and 


SELF-SUGGESTION  5 

which  we  now  know  exercises  a  profound 
influence  on  our  entire  mental  and  moral 
life.  The  agencies  by  which  the  influence 
is  exercised  are  various.  Perhaps  it  is 
through  the  spoken  word  or  through  a 
gesture  that  an  idea  is  communicated ;  per- 
haps, it  is  some  form  of  electricity  or  me- 
chanical therapeutics;  perhaps,  it  is  the 
subtler  power  of  personality.  These  are 
merely  the  means  by  which  suggestion 
operates:  the  essential  note  of  suggestion 
itself  is  that  it  works  in  a  subterranean 
way  in  the  person  influenced  by  it.  We 
shall  do  well,  then,  to  reserve  the  word 
"  suggestion  "  for  the  subconscious  and  un- 
conscious activities  of  ideas  in  us,  whether 
the  ideas  come  from  ourselves  (auto-sug- 
gestion) or  from  others  (hetero-sugges- 
tion).  How  the  subconscious  activity 
works  and  how  it  is  related  to  the 
physiological  apparatus  of  brain  and 
nervous  system,  we  do  not  know.  All  we 
know  are  simply  external,  empirical  facts. 
We  know  that  certain  ideas  offered  by 
another  can  unlock  pent-up  energies, 


6  THE  POWER  OF 

remove  mental  and  moral  inhibitions, 
unify  dissociated  states  of  consciousness; 
but  as  to  how  these  things  are  done, 
we  must  say  with  Du  Bois-Reymond, 
"  Ignoramus,"  and  perhaps  also,  "  Ig- 
norabimus." 

Mysterious  as  is  the  power  of  sugges- 
tion when  offered  by  another  person, 
equally  mysterious  is  it  when  offered  by 
one  to  one's  self.  This  latter  type  of 
suggestion  is  called  "  auto-"  or  "  self- 
suggestion."  2  A  recent  German  writer, 
in  the  course  of  his  discussion  of  mind-cure 
procedures,  comes  to  deal  with  the  power 
of  auto-suggestion  and  dismisses  it  in  the 
spirit  of  Dean  Swift's  famous  essay  on 
the  mountains  of  Holland,  which  consisted 
of  one  line,  "  There  are  no  mountains  in 
Holland.  "  According  to  this  scientific 
authority,  auto-suggestion  is  impossible.3 
This  is  true  if  by  the  term  is  meant  an 
idea  created  as  it  were  out  of  nothing 
through  the  sheer  force  of  one's  own  will. 
But  that  is  not  the  meaning  of  the  term 
as  used  by  those  who  are  concerned  with 


SELF-SUGGESTION  7 

the  therapeutic  value  of  suggestion.  The 
term  is  intended  rather  to  express  the 
power  of  the  mind  unconsciously  to  build, 
upon  a  hint  from  the  outside  or  upon  the 
erroneous  interpretation  of  a  special  sen- 
sation, a  whole  morbid  superstructure, 
which  creates  a  nervous  disorder;  and  also 
its  power  to  receive  a  good  suggestion  or 
a  hint  offered  from  the  outside,  or  in  the 
course  of  one's  own  reflections,  and  uncon- 
sciously, as  in  lighter  states  of  sleep,  to 
amplify  it  and  so  narrow  consciousness 
upon  it  that  it  sets  up  a  healing  process. 
Cure  by  self-suggestion  rests  upon  the 
fundamental  dogma  of  modern  physio- 
logical psychology  that  mind  and  body 
constitute  a  unity,  that  for  every  thought 
and  feeling,  however  slight,  there  is  a 
corresponding  nervous  event.  It  follows 
that,  within  limits,  as  is  the  mind  so  is 
the  body.  Our  thoughts  concerning  our 
bodies  are  not  inert,  dead  things ;  they  are 
living  forces  that  tend  to  find  expression  in 
corresponding  physical  states.  This  is  not 
a  speculation;  it  is  a  fact  established  by 


8  THE  POWER  OF 

abundant  observation  and  experiment.  It 
is  the  overseeding  of  this  truth,  and  the 
neglect  of  the  complementary  principle  of 
the  influence  of  body  on  mind,  that  has 
given  birth  to  the  quasi-theosophical  men- 
tal and  spiritual  healing  systems  so  rife  in 
our  time.  But  the  over-emphasis  on  a 
true  idea  need  not  drive  us  to  a  denial 
of  its  relative  significance  and  value.  Dr. 
George  B.  Cutten  puts  the  matter  cor- 
rectly when  he  says:  "However  the 
thought  of  cure  may  come  into  our  minds, 
whether  by  external  or  auto-suggestion,  if 
it  is  firmly  rooted  so  as  to  impress  the  sub- 
consciousness,  that  part  of  the  mind  which 
rules  the  bodily  organs,  a  tendency  toward 
cure  is  at  once  set  up  and  continues  as  long 
as  that  thought  has  the  ascendency." 

We  all  know  from  experience  the  power 
of  self-suggestion  to  originate  morbid  con- 
ditions. The  heart  beats  automatically; 
but  some  night,  lying  awake,  we  become 
conscious  of  its  strokes.  Should  some  slight 
pain  in  the  region  of  the  heart  supervene 
at  that  time,  we  may,  if  we  are  suggestible, 


SELF-SUGGESTION  9 

leap  irrationally  to  the  idea  that  we  are 
suffering  from  heart  disease,  and  this  er- 
roneous notion  will  serve  to  increase  the 
slight  functional  irregularity  through 
automatic  repetition  of  the  idea.  In  psy- 
chological terms,  we  are  here  building  up 
either  subconsciously  or  unconsciously  an 
abnormal  instead  of  a  normal  complex  of 
ideas.  A  good  illustration  of  this  process 
is  afforded  by  the  case  of  a  gentleman  who 
called  upon  me  recently  to  get  some  advice 
as  to  the  method  of  regaining  his  self-con- 
trol. It  appears  that  he  had  been  reading 
Professor  Percival  Lowell's  lectures  on  the 
conditions  of  life  in  Mars,  and  he  had  been 
profoundly  impressed  by  the  fact  that  in 
that  planet  water  is  very  scarce  and  the  in- 
habitants suffer  from  perpetual  thirst. 
Then  he  argued,  on  the  basis  of  this  obser- 
vation, that  the  Deity  who  could  tolerate 
such  conditions  in  Mars  might  regard 
with  complacency  the  same  state  of  affairs 
on  this  earth.  Then  he  began  half  con- 
sciously to  visualize  the  state  of  this  earth 
when  everybody  would  be  suffering  from 


10  THE  POWER  OF 

thirst,  and  so  the  process  of  morbid  brain 
activity  went  on  until  he  became  a  nervous 
wreck.  Had  he  realized  just  what  he  was 
doing,  the  morbid  process  would  have  been 
nipped  in  the  bud  by  a  hearty  laugh. 

Many  disorders  spring  from  a  tendency 
to  dwell  upon  morbid  fancies,  the  product 
of  an  undisciplined  imagination.  Hence 
many  nervous  sufferers  suffer  not  from  the 
disease  which  they  imagine  themselves  to 
have,  but  from  a  disease  of  a  drifting,  un- 
controlled imagination.  The  hypochon- 
driac, for  example,  who,  conscious  of  some 
pain  in  the  back,  arrives  suddenly  at  the 
fixed  belief  that  he  is  suffering  from  kid- 
ney disease,  is  not  really  suffering  from 
this  disorder,  but  is  in  truth  the  victim 
of  a  powerful  auto-suggestion.  Or,  again, 
take  some  types  of  stammerers.  Fre- 
quently we  observe  that  when  the  stam- 
merer is  engrossed  in  a  subject  or  has  his 
mind  diverted  for  the  moment  from  his 
weakness,  he  speaks  fluently  and  easily; 
but  when  he  recalls  his  trouble  and  is 
seized  with  a  fear  that  he  is  about  to  stam- 


SELF-SUGGESTION  11 

mer,  then  he  begins  to  stammer.  Here  the 
stammering  has  a  purely  psychical  origin. 
He  is  the  victim  of  an  auto-suggestion. 
Or  take  the  fear  which  goes  by  the  name 
of  "  stage  fright."  The  sufferer  is  pos- 
sessed (he  knows  not  how  or  why)  with  the 
i'dea  that  when  he  ascends  the  platform  or 
the  pulpit  to  deliver  his  lecture  or  sermon, 
he  will  become  nervous  and  perhaps  lose 
the  thread  of  his  discourse  and  suffer  the 
humiliation  of  a  breakdown.  Remove  this 
apprehension  from  his  mind,  and  he  stands 
up  calm  and  self-possessed  and  utters  his 
words  with  freedom  and  ease.  This  is  a 
type  of  an  isolated  fear,  which  may  arise 
in  an  otherwise  well-balanced  and  healthy 
mind. 

A  thought  which  is  the  subconscious 
creation  of  our  own  minds  may  lead  us 
into  error  concerning  even  the  existence 
of  a  fact,  and  may  thus  give  rise  to  a 
purely  suggested  sensation.  It  is  well 
known,  for  example,  that  in  answer  to 
hypnotic  suggestion — following  only,  of 
course,  upon  the  deeper  hypnotic  states — a 


12  THE  POWER  OF 

man  may  become  paralyzed,  or  he  may  ex- 
perience a  headache,  or  he  may  be  cured, 
for  the  time  at  least,  of  the  most  excruciat- 
ing agony.  So,  too,  by  sheer  self-sugges- 
tion he  may  unconsciously  produce  a  pain 
in  any  part  of  his  organism,  or  he  may 
derange  his  digestion,  or  he  may  deepen  a 
sense  of  fatigue,  or  he  may  lose  the  power 
of  speech.  The  idea,  once  originated, 
acts,  as  Charcot  says,  like  a  parasite  and 
exercises  an  influence  over  the  whole  men- 
tal realm  and  even  over  the  physiological 
functions.  We  know  that  in  neurasthenia 
or  as  it  is  popularly  called  "  nervous  pros- 
tration," self-suggestion  plays  a  great 
role.  The  neurasthenic  seems  often  in  a 
state  of  utter  exhaustion;  yet  the  breath- 
ing is  normal,  the  pulse  is  regular,  the 
muscles  are  well  developed,  and  there  is 
no  trace  of  paralysis  or  of  real  muscular 
fatigue  or  weakness.  He  will  tell  you  that 
he  cannot  lift  the  smallest  weight  without  a 
sense  of  fatigue ;  yet  if  you  divert  his  mind 
from  that  particular  movement,  you  will 
soon  discover  that  he  is  capable  of  a  great 


SELF-SUGGESTION  13 

amount  of  physical  exertion  along  other 
lines.  His  sense  of  fatigue  is  owing  to  the 
intervention  of  an  auto-suggestion  quite 
unrecognized  by  the  patient.  It  is  what  is 
known  as  a  "  habit  fatigue,"  a  sort  of  false 
fatigue  which  differs  from  normal,  healthy 
fatigue  in  that  it  is  not  helped  as  a  rule  by 
rest.  The  truth  is,  the  neurasthenic,  when 
he  is  about  to  put  forth  an  effort,  expects 
to  be  fatigued,  and  this  very  expectation 
brings  about  the  sense  of  exhaustion.  It 
is  another  illustration  of  the  power  of  ex- 
pectant attention. 

Dubois,  the  Swiss  specialist,  tells  of 
a  patient  whose  trouble  started  in  this 
way:  On  one  occasion,  it  was  his  duty  to 
carry  some  potted  geraniums  to  another 
flower  border  in  the  garden  where  he  was 
at  work.  Following  this  effort,  he  was 
taken  with  an  agonizing  cramp  in  the  re- 
gion of  his  stomach.  He  soon  discovered 
the  reason  of  this  strange  sensation.  It 
was  the  red  of  the  geraniums  which 
brought  it  on.  That  was  his  theory,  and 
he  found  confirmation  of  this  theory  in  the 


14  THE  POWER  OF 

fact  that  ever  afterwards  bright  red  al- 
ways produced  this  effect  upon  him  and 
the  reaction  was  just  in  proportion  to  the 
intensity  of  the  red,  so  that  if  he  took  up 
a  book  with  red  edges,  the  sensation  of 
pain  grew  to  its  maximum  when  the  book 
was  closed  and  decreased  if  the  intensity 
of  the  color  was  lessened  by  turning  the 
leaves  over.  Dubois  pointed  out  to  him 
that  he  was  simply  the  victim  of  an  auto- 
suggestion. Possibly  cramp  came  on  the 
day  he  first  felt  it  through  the  attitude  of 
bending  the  body  or  through  some  physi- 
cal fatigue  or  perhaps  because  he  had 
eaten  something  that  had  disagreed  with 
him.  One  could  not  tell  exactly  what  was 
the  cause.  It  could  not  have  been  the 
red  color,  however,  that  made  such  an  im- 
pression upon  his  organs  and  caused  the 
sensation,  because  there  is  no  inherent  con- 
nection between  any  color  and  stomach 
cramp.  That  the  red  always  acted  in  the 
same  way  afterwards  did  not  prove  any- 
thing. He  was  suffering  .from  the  effect 
of  an  auto-suggestion,  and  as  a  mental 


SELF-SUGGESTION  15 

suggestion  creates  a  sensation  just  as  long 
as  it  is  not  dissipated  by  a  contrary  auto- 
suggestion, so  the  patient  had  remained 
under  the  power  of  his  self-produced 
trouble  until  he  understood  its  modus 
operandi — the  source  of  its  hold  on  him. 
This,  brought  to  light,  began  his  cure.5 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  auto-sugges- 
tion can  in  many  instances  cure  as  well 
as  create  nervous  disorder.0  Its  restorative 
powers,  indeed,  are  limited  and  often  it  can 
produce  mischiefs  which  it  seems  power- 
less to  heal.  In  these  cases,  suggestion 
offered  by  another  or  some  other  psycho- 
therapeutic  procedure  is  necessary.  For 
example,  experience  leads  us  to  deny  its 
utility  in  the  morbid  impulses  and  strange, 
abnormal  sensations  characteristic  of 
psychasthenia.  No  amount  of  self-sug- 
gestion will  restore  to  the  sufferer  a  sense 
of  the  reality  of  the  world  or  of  the  con- 
creteness  of  events.  "  Dread  of  open 
spaces  [agoraphobia],"  says  Moll,  "is 
nothing  but  an  auto-suggestion.  The 
patient  in  this  case  is  possessed  by  the  idea 


16  THE  POWER  OF 

that  he  cannot  step  across  some  open 
space.  No  reasoning  is  of  avail  here.  The 
patient  acknowledges  its  justice  without 
permitting  it  to  influence  him,  because  his 
auto-suggestion  is  too  powerful.  As  a  rule, 
logic  is  for  the  most  part  powerless  over 
these  auto-suggestions."  7  The  cure  lies  in 
a  process  of  re-education  administered  by 
skilled  experts  in  psychological  medicine. 
It  is  powerless,  too,  for  the  most  part, 
against  drug  addictions,  those  moral  mis- 
chiefs that  root  themselves  profoundly  in 
the  mental  and  moral  mechanism.  The  rea- 
son is  that  the  psychical  powers  are  too 
much  involved  in  the  given  disorder  to  ad- 
mit of  the  formation  of  good  auto-sugges- 
tions. On  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  a 
mistake  to  deny,  as  some  writers  do,  its 
value  in  certain  milder  forms  of  trouble. 
It  has  special  significance  when  the  condi- 
tion of  the  nervous  sufferer  is  balanced  be- 
tween the  normal  and  the  abnormal,  so 
that  good  self-suggestion  offered  sys- 
tematically and  with  belief  may  succeed 
in  tipping  the  scales  in  the  right  direc- 


SELF-SUGGESTION  17 

tion.  As  a  well-known  English  physi- 
cian puts  it :  "A  man  outside  a  baker's 
shop  may  be  just  balanced  between  steal- 
ing or  not.  Hunger  prompts  the  one 
way;  principle  the  other.  Now,  if  an 
emotion-idea  is  presented  to  his  mind  of 
his  starving  family  at  home,  he  takes  a 
loaf  and  becomes  a  thief.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  vision  of  prison,  or  the  verse, 
'  Thou  shalt  not  steal,'  rises  forcibly  in  his 
brain,  he  walks  away.  In  the  same  way, 
in  many  nerve  affections,  a  comparatively 
slight  self-suggestion  will  enable  us  to  do 
what  we  otherwise  could  not,  and  so  over- 
come some  nervous  dread.  For  instance, 
a  person  with  some  unreasonable  fear  that 
is  poisoning  his  life  may — besides  remov- 
ing any  contributing  cause  and  besides 
combating  it  with  his  will  power — ac- 
tively employ  auto-suggestion  by  bringing 
his  reason  to  bear  on  it,  and  show  its  folly 
to  himself  by  saying  aloud  at  the  most 
impressionable  time,  when  just  awaking 
or  falling  asleep,  how  unreasonable  the 
fear  is,  by  thinking  similar  thoughts,  by 


18  THE  POWER  OF 

seeing  in  print  the  folly  of  his  fears  de- 
scribed, and  by  hearing  others  say  the 


same." 


There  are  exceptional  cases  on  record, 
in  which  a  profound  upheaval  of  the  sub- 
conscious, life  has  been  able  to  effect  revo- 
lutions in  habit  and  character  which  were 
beyond  the  scope,  apparently,  of  any 
method  that  could  appeal  to  the  ordinary 
consciousness.  A  medical  writer  has  re- 
cently published  a  story,  for  the  authen- 
ticity of  which  he  vouches.  It  was  the 
case  of  a  young  man  who  had  contracted 
the  morphine  habit.  As  is  well  known, 
morphinism  is  one  of  the  most  tenacious 
of  moral  slaveries  and  is  exceedingly  diffi- 
cult to  break  up.  This  young  man  was 
devoted  to  his  mother,  who  had  been  dead 
for  some  time.  One  night  he  had  an 
exceedingly  vivid  dream,  in  which  she  ap- 
peared to  him  with  all  the  verisimilitude 
of  life.  She  sat  by  his  bedside,  the  tears 
streaming  down  her  cheeks,  her  voice 
broken  with  sobs,  as  she  implored  him  to 
give  up  the  habit  that  was  ruining  his  life. 


SELF-SUGGESTION  19 

So  vivid  was  the  dream  and  so  profound 
was  the  impression  it  made  upon  his  mind 
that  he  awoke,  and,  rising  from  his  bed, 
he  took  the  bottle  containing  the  drug  and 
the  morphine  syringe,  and  breaking  them 
in  pieces,  he  from  that  moment  ex- 
perienced deliverance,  nor  had  there  been 
any  relapse  up  to  a  few  months  ago  when 
the  incident  was  brought  to  my  knowl- 
edge.0 

But  of  course  such  incidents  are  rare 
and  cannot  be  commanded  at  will.  Their 
occurrence  depends  upon  subtle  and  in- 
explicable and,  so  to  say,  accidental 
causes.  Nevertheless,  they  do  show  that 
sometimes  the  subconscious  element  in 
mind,  when  profoundly  moved,  is  capable 
of  working  wonders  which,  apparently,  are 
not  possible  to  the  normal  wraking  con- 
sciousness. It  is  more  useful,  however,  to 
reflect  that  there  are  certain  minor 
troubles  against  which  self-suggestion, 
which  is  within  our  own  control,  is  power- 
ful, and  it  is  about  its  curative  influence 
on  these  that  I  now  pass  on  to  speak. 


20  THE  POWER  OF 

We  know  that  certain  types  of  pain  are 
amenable  to  self-suggestion.  Pascal  is 
said  to  have  cured  himself  of  a  severe 
toothache  by  applying  his  mind  to  the 
solution  of  a  mathematical  problem.  Dur- 
ing the  passive  state  of  reflection,  his  at- 
tention had  ceased  to  sustain  the  painful 
sensation  which  he  had  experienced,  and 
hence  the  pain  disappeared.  Immanuel 
Kant  was  subject  to  oppressive  palpita- 
tions of  the  heart,  but  he  triumphed  over 
his  misery  by  transferring  his  attention  to 
intellectual  work.  He  was  able  to  put 
himself  very  quickly  into  a  somnolent  con- 
dition, which  enabled  him,  while  concen- 
trating his  mind,  to  lose  consciousness  of 
his  physical  sensation.10  And  in  our  own 
time,  Professor  Forel,  of  Zurich,  reports 
that  though  he  has  suffered  for  the  last  six 
years  from  ringing  in  the  ears  caused  by  a 
chronic  dry  catarrh  of  the  middle  ear,  yet 
he  has  succeeded  in  diverting  his  attention 
so  completely  from  it  that,  as  a  rule,  he  no 
longer  hears  it  except  when  he  thinks 
directly  of  it  through  association.  My  col- 


SELF-SUGGESTION  21 

league,  Rev.  Dr.  Worcester,  tells  me  that 
by  self-suggestion  he  has  cured  a  recurrent 
headache ;  and  other  instances  of  the  same 
kind  have  come  to  my  knowledge.  There 
is  a  headache  which  is  mainly  psychical 
in  character  and  may  be  called  a  "  habit 
headache,"  which  arises  through  a  kind  of 
mental  reverberation  of  past  experience. 
Against  such  pain,  auto-suggestion  is  of 
distinct  value.11  So,  too,  with  constipation, 
not  dependent  on  organic  disease.  It  is 
well  known  that  many  persons  suffer  from 
constipation  originating  in  auto-sugges- 
tion, and  perpetuate  it  by  the  continual 
use  of  laxatives,  which  interfere  with  the 
automatism  of  the  central  nervous  system 
and  the  normal  innervation  of  the  bowels. 
In  this  case,  what  auto-suggestion  causes, 
it  can  also  cure.  From  a  letter  which  lies 
before  me  and  which  was  written  by  a  suf- 
ferer from  this  trouble,  I  quote  these  sen- 
tences :  "I  have  done  something  for 
myself  through  auto-suggestion.  I  have 
practiced  this  faithfully  now  for  over  six 
months,  and  have  cured  my  constipation 


22  THE  POWER  OF 

and  have  practically  cured  my  sleepless- 
ness." And  this  statement  is  typical  of 
many  others. 

Or  take  worry,  which  is  simply  a  vicious 
mental  habit  kept  up  by  vicious  self- 
suggestion.  Dr.  Saleeby  calls  it  the  "  dis- 
ease of  the  age,"  and  certainly  ninety  per 
cent,  of  nervous  sufferers  complain  of 
this  mental  misery.  Said  one  of  these 
sufferers  to  me  once,  "  I  worry  about 
small  things,  and  I  worry  about  great, 
and  then  I  worry  because  I  worry." 
Where  the  worry  is  not  the  symptom  of 
some  profound  mental  disturbance,  it  can 
be  met  and  mastered  by  the  worrier.  Of 
course,  it  is  useless  to  say  to  one's  self, 
"Don't  worry;"  and  especially  is  it  use- 
less to  utter  this  negative  with  vehemence 
and  impatience.  This  style  of  dealing  with 
the  trouble  will  only  intensify  it.  The  bet- 
ter plan  is  to  wait  until  one  is  in  a  re- 
laxed, calm,  and  passive  state,  as  in  the 
minutes  that  immediately  precede  falling 
asleep,  and  then  gently  impress  upon  the 
mind  the  idea  that  on  awaking  the  mind 


SELF-SUGGESTION  23 

will  be  at  perfect  peace  with  itself,  full  of 
hope  and  harmony. 

One  who  has  suffered  much  from  worry 
and  depression  of  spirits  writes  to  me  as 
follows:  "  I  have  been  using  auto-sugges- 
tion for  the  eradication  of  depression  and 
to  correct  defects  of  character.  It  may 
seem  amusing  to  you  that  a  man  of  sixty- 
four  should  begin  at  that  late  day  to  cor- 
rect defects  of  character,  but  I  am  sur- 
prised and  pleased  to  note  that  I  am 
making  progress.  ...  I  am  actually 
startled  sometimes  at  the  vividness  and 
clearness  with  which  the  suggestions  given 
at  night  come  into  the  mind  during  the 
day  when  I  am  engrossed  in  business  mat- 
ters. It  actually  seems  at  times  as  though 
a  voice  from  the  sky  spoke  to  me.  From 
my  own  experience,  I  believe  anyone  of 
ordinary  intelligence  and  persistency  can 
re-educate  or  make  himself  over." 

Mr.  Charles  G.  Leland  (of  "  Hans 
Breitmann  Ballads  "  fame)  tells  us  how 
he  overcame  in  this  way  both  false  fatigue 
and  worry.  He  had  read  in  works  on 


24  THE  POWER  OF 

hypnotism  how  patients  were  made  to  be- 
lieve that  they  were  monkeys,  or  mad- 
men, or  umbrellas,  or  criminals,  at  will. 
Then  the  thought  occurred  to  him  that  he 
might  develop  this  power  for  his  own 
moral  benefit.  He  suggested  to  himself 
while  in  a  somnolent  condition  that  he 
should  apply  himself  to  literary  or  artistic 
labor  without  once  feeling  fatigue.  His 
suggestions  he  found  were  realized, 
though  he  was  a  man  of  advanced  years 
and  therefore,  presumably,  more  easily 
tired.  His  next  step  was  to  will  that  he 
should  all  the  next  day  be  free  from  any 
nervous  or  mental  worry,  that  he  should 
preserve  a  hopeful,  calm,  well-balanced 
state  of  mind.  He  adds:  "I  had  my 
lapses,  but  withal  I  was  simply  astonished 
to  find  how,  by  perseverance,  habitual  calm 
not  only  grew  on  me,  but  how  decidedly  it 
increased.  I  most  assuredly  have  ex- 
perienced it  to  such  a  degree  as  to  marvel 
that  the  method  is  not  more  employed  as  a 
cure  for  nervous  suffering  and  in- 
somnia." 12  Mr.  Leland  wrote  those  words 


SELF-SUGGESTION          25 

about  ten  years  ago.  Much  has  happened 
since  then;  and  now  the  psychologically 
trained  physician  preaches  the  virtue  of 
self-suggestion  to  the  unhappy  victim  of 
worry,  lack  of  self-confidence  or  of  nerv- 
ous irritability,  ultra  self-consciousness, 
stage-fright,  psychical  fatigue,  and  insom- 
nia. Formulate  and  silently  repeat  some 
such  proposition  as  this :  "  To-morrow*  I 
shall  awake  with  a  free,  clear  conscience, 
glad  in  the  thought  that  I  can  do  whatever 
work  Providence  assigns  me.  I  will, 
therefore,  be  happy  and  cheerful.  I  will 
be  master  of  myself.  I  will  not  only  be 
happy  myself  but  will  seek  to  make  others 
happy."  Before  many  weeks  have  passed 
you  will  be  conscious  of  a  change.  Worry 
will  begin  to  loosen  its  grip,  everything 
will  take  on  a  happier  guise,  and  the  whole 
personality  will  be  lifted  to  a  new  level  of 
freedom  and  efficiency. 

Especially  is  its  value  to  be  emphasized 
in  bad  or  broken  sleep.  Much  of  the 
curse  of  insomnia  is  due  to  the  belief  or 
to  the  fear  of  the  sufferer  that  he  cannot 


26  THE  POWER  OF 

sleep.  Once  this  apprehension  is  broken 
down,  he  sleeps.  It  is  not  so  much  the 
insomnia  as  the  worry  about  the  in- 
somnia that  does  the  mischief.  Hence 
the  sufferer  will  do  well  if  he  sug- 
gests to  himself,  and  repeats  the  sug- 
gestion over  and  over  again:  "If  I 
sleep — well;  if  I  do  not  sleep,  I  will  at 
least  gain  rest  by  keeping  my  mind  calm 
and  my  body  relaxed."  Whether  we  sleep 
depends  on  the  state  of  mind  with  which 
we  go  to  bed.  If  we  allow  the  cares  and 
worries  of  the  day  to  haunt  our  pillow, 
then  we  need  hardly  expect  to  sleep.  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  once  asked  if  the  fate  of 
some  Parliamentary  bill  which  absorbed 
his  attention  did  not  obtrude  itself  in  the 
hours  of  rest.  He  replied,  sensibly,  "  No ; 
what  good  would  that  do  ? "  Men  who 
have  performed  great  tasks  have  per- 
formed them  largely  through  their  ability 
to  dismiss  care  and  anxiety  from  their 
minds  when  it  was  safe  for  them  to 
do  so. 

As  illustrating  the   influence  of   self- 


SELF-SUGGESTION  27 

suggestion,  in  producing  sleep,  Dr. 
George  L.  Walton,  the  Boston  neurolo- 
gist, recommends  the  following  experi- 
ments: First,  place  yourself  on  the  face 
and  from  this  point  turn  rapidly  in  a 
complete  circle  backwards  from  right  to 
left  until  you  are  again  on  the  face.  Pause 
several  times  and  say  to  yourself  rapidly, 
I  cannot  sleep  in  this  position.  The  re- 
sult of  the  experiment  is  practically  uni- 
form. The  rapid  movement  and  the 
suggestion  prevent  sleep.  Secondly,  start 
in  the  same  position  as  in  the  first  experi- 
ment. Traverse  the  same  circle,  prolong- 
ing each  pause  with  body  relaxed,  and 
substituting  at  each  pause  the  suggestion, 
I  can  sleep  in  any  position,  repeated  a 
number  of  times  deliberately  and  as  if  you 
meant  it.  The  restful  pause  and  the  sug- 
gestion generally  induce  sleep  long  before 
the  circle  is  completed.13  In  a  word,  the 
secret  of  getting  sleep  is  to  assume  the 
external  physical  attitude  which  corre- 
sponds to  sleep,  to  relax-  every  muscle, 
and  let  it  stay  relaxed,  to  breathe  lightly 


28  THE  POWER  OF 

and  regularly,  to  call  up  the  image  of  a 
sleeping  person,  to  talk  and  think  sleep 
to  one's  self,  to  repeat  silently  and  in  a 
quiet,  dreamy  fashion  such  a  formula  as 
this,—  '  There  is  no  reason  why  I  should 
not  sleep,  therefore  I  can  sleep,  therefore 
I  shall  sleep.  My  body  is  relaxed,  my 
mind  is  at  peace,  sleep  is  coming,  I  am 
getting  sleepy,  I  am  about  to  sleep,  I  am 
asleep." 

There  are  many  who  groan  under  the 
burden  of  evil  and  degrading  habits  of 
mind,  of  body,  or  of  both,  and  their  cry 
"O  wretched  man  that  I  am!"  is  sel- 
dom heard  with  sympathy  or  insight.  One 
peculiar  form  of  mental  misery  afflicts 
many  nervous  people.  They  are  ob- 
sessed with  thoughts  which  they  abhor, 
thoughts  that  seem  to  them  unutterably 
degrading  but  which,  try  as  they  will, 
they  cannot  get  rid  of.  Sometimes  such 
sufferers  become  melancholy  and  de- 
pressed and  even  imagine  that  they  are  in 
a  hopeless  condition  morally  and  spiritu- 
ally. They  try  by  recreation  or  change  of 


SELF-SUGGESTION  29 

scene  or  by  sinking  themselves  in  some 
piece  of  hard  work  or  by  prayer  and  read- 
ing religious  books,  to  get  relief  from  the 
insistent  and  recurring  idea,  but  the  mo- 
ment the  mind  is  at  liberty,  off  it  flies  to 
the  forbidden  object.  What  are  such  suf- 
ferers to  do? 

Richard  Baxter,  the  Puritan  divine  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  has  written  words 
of  wisdom  on  this  subject  which  ought  to 
comfort  those  haunted  with  ideas  they 
recognize  to  be  wrong. 

'  Though  we  cannot,"  he  says,  "  in 
many  cases  think  always  of  what  we  would 
—nay,  though  we  cannot  hinder  abun- 
dance of  thoughts  from  coming  into  our 
minds  against  our  will,  yet  it  is  always  in 
our  power  to  assent  to  our  thoughts  or  to 
deny  our  consent  to  them.  If  we  do  not 
consent  to  them  so  soon  as  we  are  aware 
of  them,  there  is  no  harm  done.  Should 
we  be  haunted  with  blasphemous  thoughts 
and  cannot  get  rid  of  them,  we  must  con- 
sider that  our  thoughts  are  no  further  ours 
than  as  we  choose  them;  that  all  sin  lies 


30  THE  POWER  OF 

in  the  will,  and  all  will  implies  choice;  that 
those  thoughts,  therefore,  which  are  not 
our  choice,  which  we  reject  with  a  settled 
aversion  and  abhorrence,  will  never  be 
placed  to  our  account.  .  .  .  Notwith- 
standing what  I  have  hitherto  said  con- 
cerning the  diligence  with  which  we  are 
to  keep  our  hearts,  yet  this  is  always  to 
be  remembered,  that  with  our  diligence  we 
must  be  careful  to  join  discretion.  My 
meaning  is  this :  we  must  have  a  care  not 
to  extend  our  thoughts  immoderately  and 
more  than  our  tempers  will  bear,  even  to 
the  best  tilings,  and  the  way  to  do  that  is 
not  to  put  them  too  much  or  too  long  upon 
the  stretch  at  any  one  time,  but  to  relax 
them  when  there  is  occasion  and  to  let  them 
run  out  and  entertain  themselves  upon 
anything  that  comes  to  hand  so  long  as  it 
is  innocent."  14 

We  now  know  what  Baxter  did  not 
know,  that  by  saturating  the  mind  with 
good  self-suggestions  when  body  and  mind 
are  in  a  relaxed  condition,  the  force  of 
these  vicious  self-suggestions  can  be  van- 


SELF-SUGGESTION  31 

quished.  Those  who  are  troubled  with 
mental  obsessions  of  a  painful  and  shame- 
ful character  ought  to  reflect  that  they  are 
suffering  from  a  morbid  condition  of  the 
mind  and  that  there  are  energies  moral 
and  psychical,  within  themselves,  which, 
once  released,  will  sweep  away  inhibiting 
weaknesses,  wretchednesses,  peccancies, 
and  which  will  unify  and  harmonize  their 
inner  world.  And  one  of  the  means  by 
which  these  forces  may  be  released  is  self- 
suggestion. 

Here  I  would  call  attention  to  the 
close  connection  between  self-suggestion 
and  prayer.  '  When  persons  go  into 
a  house  of  worship,"  says  Dr.  R.  C. 
Cabot,  "  put  themselves  into  a  time- 
honored  habitual  position,  relax  them- 
selves, turn  away  their  minds  and  their 
attention  from  all  outside  cares  and 
thoughts,  and  make  themselves,  so  far  as 
they  can,  receptive  to  the  truth  that  is  to 
be  spoken  to  them  and  by  their  own  lips, 
I  do  not  see  how  we  can  fail  to  see  that 
something  is  going  on  akin  to  what  I  have 


32  THE  POWER  OF 

called  suggestion  in  the  relaxed  condi- 
tion." 15 

This,  of  course,  does  not  explain  the 
mystery  of  prayer,  nor  does  it  cover  all 
that  is  meant  by  prayer.  For  self-sug- 
gestion is  itself  a  mystery,  and  appears  to 
point  to  some  wider  self  of  which  our 
ordinary,  everyday  self  is  but  a  fragment. 
But  it  does  make  intelligible  to  us  the  es- 
tablished fact  that  prayer  works  reflex 
benefits  in  the  mind  of  him  who  prays, 
such  as  the  feeling  of  strength,  power, 
peace,  and  insight  into  the  course  of  action 
to  be  pursued.  It  is  significant  that  many 
men  of  action,  such  as  Mohammed,  Luther, 
Gladstone,  and  General  Gordon,  have 
been  men  of  prayer.  We  must  remem- 
ber, however,  that  if  we  would  have  the 
reflex  benefits  of  prayer  we  must  be- 
lieve that  He  to  whom  we  pray  is,  and 
that  "  He  is  the  re  warder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  Him."  If  prayer  were  be- 
lieved to  be  only  self-suggestive  or  reflex, 
few  would  be  found  to  keep  up  the 
practice. 


SELF-SUGGESTION  33 

The  two  great  principles  on  which  the 
method  I  have  been  expounding  is  based 
are  first,  the  unity  of  mind  and  body  in 
virtue  of  which  mental  and  nervous  states 
are  parallel  and  proportional,  so  that,  for 
example,  not  the  slightest  feeling  or 
thought  can  exist  without  at  the  same  time 
a  change  small  or  great  in  the  physical 
organism;  and,  secondly,  the  complexity 
of  mind,  involving  as  it  does  elements  that 
are  conscious  and  elements  that  are  uncon- 
scious, or  "  subconscious." 

Now,  the  older  psychologists  made  mind 
and  consciousness  practically  coterminous : 
whereas  modern  students  regard  con- 
sciousness as  only  one  of  the  manifesta- 
tions of  mind.  There  is  a  great  region  of 
mind  that  lies  below  or  outside  the  sphere 
of  consciousness.  This  is  variously  named 
the  "  subconscious,"  the  "  subliminal "  or 
the  "  transliminal."  Some  go  so  far  as 
to  make  personality  dual,  and  speak  of  our 
having  two  selves,  an  "  objective  "  and  a 
"  subjective."  We  need  not  commit  our- 
selves to  such  a  doctrine;  enough  to  say 


34  THE  POWER  OF 

that  one  and  the  same  mind  has  a  "  sub- 
conscious "  region  of  activity.  Any  men- 
tal experience,  which  cannot  be  voluntarily 
recalled  or  reproduced,  but  which  may  be 
reproduced  through  special  devices,  is  a 
subconscious  or  a  dissociated  experience. 
To  the  belief  that  there  is  such  a  subcon- 
scious region  of  mind  the  following  writers, 
among  others,  have  given  their  adherence : 
O.  W.  Holmes,  Francis  Galton,  Hack 
Tuke,  Ribot,  W.  B.  Carpenter,  Wundt, 
Fechner,  Paulsen,  Janet,  Forel,  Freud, 
Jastrow,  Stanley  Hall,  Coriat,  Morton 
Prince,  Sidis,  J.  J.  Putnam,  and  James. 
But  our  everyday  experience  makes  the 
quotation  of  authorities  needless.  You  re- 
solve to  awaken  at  a  certain  hour  deter- 
mined on  before  going  to  sleep.  Sure 
enough,  about  the  given  time  you  open 
your  eyes.  What  internal  clock  sprang 
its  alarm  at  the  given  moment?  Or  take 
the  familiar  difficulty  of  recalling  a  name. 
We  rack  our  brains  to  find  the  forgotten 
word  but  to  no  purpose.  When  we  cease 
from  our  efforts  and  turn  to  something 


SELF-SUGGESTION  35 

else,  suddenly  the  name  flashes  on  us  with- 
out any  apparent  reason  and  we  wonder 
at  the  experience.  The  state  of  abstraction 
produced  by  turning  to  something  else,  is 
the  device  by  which  the  name  flashed  into 
consciousness.  In  psychological  terms  the 
dissociated  name  has  become  synthetized. 
Everyday  abstraction  is  a  type  of  a  nor- 
mal dissociation  of  consciousness.  Doubt- 
less the  explanation  is  that  in  the  endeavor 
to  find  the  name,  a  subconscious  process  is 
set  up,  which,  acting  automatically,  in  due 
time  stirs  into  consciousness  what  we  seek 
to  know.  M  any  of  our  choices  which  we  re- 
gard as  self-caused  or  accidental  are  really 
the  fruit  of,  it  may  be,  a  long  and  com- 
plicated series  of  subconscious  processes 
which  because  they  are  subconscious  hide 
from  us  the  real  causes  of  our  acts.  This 
is  one  of  the  proofs  of  subconscious  ac- 
tivity in  everyday  life.  The  influences 
which  determine  us  to  take  one  of  two 
paths  equally  convenient  for  bringing 
us  to  some  point  we  desire  to  reach, 
are  often  hidden  in  the  subconscious 


36  THE  POWER  OF 

realm,  and  if  we  were  asked  to  state  the 
reasons  for  our  choice  we  would  almost  in- 
fallibly give  the  wrong  ones.  Or  take  the 
phenomena  of  dreams.  Here  we  are 
wholly  in  the  region  of  the  subconscious. 
Certain  organic  sensations  of  a  morbid 
kind  give  rise  subconsciously  to  dreams 
that  in  the  light  of  after  events  seem 
strangely  prophetic.  The  physician  often 
gains  valuable  hints  in  this  way  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  disease  that  is  now  begin- 
ning obscurely  to  declare  itself.  Popular 
thought  is  prone  to  regard  some  dreams  as 
if  there  were  something  supernatural 
about  them.  You  dream,  for  example,  a 
strange  and  thrilling  drama  of  battle, 
murder,  and  sudden  death.  One  of  the 
actors  is  a  man  whom  you  have  never  seen 
in  your  conscious  life.  A  few  days  later 
the  man  takes  his  seat  beside  you  in  theater 
or  church.  You  are  struck  with  amaze- 
ment and  know  not  what  to  think.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  upon  inquiry  you 
discover  that  you  have  passed  this  indi- 
vidual on  your  way  to  your  office  regularly 


SELF-SUGGESTION  37 

every  morning  for  a  considerable  period 
without,  however,  consciously  recognizing 
him.  Your  eye,  falling  upon  him  while 
perhaps  you  were  abstracted,  thinking  of 
other  things,  conveyed  no  conscious  im- 
pression to  the  mind,  but  it  did  convey  a 
subconscious  or  subattentive  one.  And  in 
the  subconscious  dreaming  state  this  im- 
pression was  reproduced.16 

Now,  there  is  a  large  class  of  physiolog- 
ical processes  which  are  under  the  control, 
not  of  the  conscious,  but  of  the  subcon- 
scious mind — such  processes,  for  example, 
as  those  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  the 
assimilation  of  food,  the  peristaltic  action 
of  the  bowels,  the  secretion  of  the  glands, 
and  in  general,  the  vital  chemistries  of 
the  body.  It  is  the  subconscious  that  con- 
trols the  action  of  the  vital  organs,  regu- 
lates the  healthy  rhythm  of  the  forces  of 
life,  and  reigns  in  the  mental  and  moral 
region  where  habit  has  the  seat  of  its 
strength.  If  we  can  in  some  way  reach 
the  subconscious  so  as  to  enlist  its  powers 
in  the  interests  of  health,  it  is  obvious  that 


38  THE  POWER  OF 

we  have  made  a  great  step  forward  in 
the  restoration  of  nervous  balance  and 
self-control.  And  that  we  can  do  in  a 
measure  in  the  few  minutes  preceding 
sleep. 

The  psychological  basis  of  the  method 
which  I  have  expounded  is  that,  as  we 
now  know,  every  one  of  us,  in  passing 
from  the  waking  to  the  sleeping  state,  or 
from  the  sleeping  to  the  waking  state, 
must  pass  through  an  intermediary  con- 
dition, half  sleeping  and  half  waking — the 
"  hypnagogic  state,"  as  the  psychologists 
call  it.  This  intermediary  or  transitional 
state  is  semi-hypnotic  in  character.  Sim- 
ple suggestions  formulated  and  repeated 
mentally  in  this  condition,  are  found  by 
experiment  to  be  powerful.  No  doubt 
people  differ  in  their  mental  constitution 
and  in  their  measure  of  suggestibility,  and 
so  it  happens  that  some  do  not  react  well 
to  this  method.  Still,  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  there  would  seem  to  be,  as  has  been 
well  said,  "  some  magic  virtue  in  sleep," 
as  if  it  preserved  and  ripened  our  wishes 


SELF-SUGGESTION  39 

in  ways  unknown  to  us.  We  seem  to  be 
justified  in  asserting  that  auto-suggestion, 
seriously,  persistently,  systematically,  and 
skillfully  applied,  can  vanquish  many  of  the 
smaller  miseries  of  life  that  yet  interfere 
with  our  happiness,  can  lessen  or  remove 
many  inhibitions,  can  make  available  for 
use  psychical  energies  and  resources.  Of 
course,  what  auto-suggestion  really  is,  how 
it  is  possible,  as  has  already  been  said,  no 
man  knows.  It  is  only  in  recent  years  that 
attention  has  been  called  to  the  relations 
of  mind  and  body  and  to  the  psychological 
mechanism  by  which  nervous  disorders  are 
produced  and  by  which  they  are  healed. 
When  as  much  time  and  energy  have  been 
spent  on  the  solution  of  these  problems  as 
have  been  given  to  the  purely  natural 
sciences,  we  may  hope  for  discoveries  that 
will  astonish  our  minds  and  revolutionize 
our  theories.  Meantime,  we  need  not  wait 
for  a  full  theory  or  philosophy  of  the 
method  before  applying  it  to  the  removal 
of  semi-nervous  and  semi-moral  troubles 
and  to  the  restoration  of  that  peace  and 


40  THE  POWER  OF 

self-control  which  form  the  secret  of  nerv- 
ous health. 

Suggestion  is  much  more  valuable  and 
powerful  if  it  is  reinforced  and  sustained 
by  ideas  that  act  in  the  full  light  of  con- 
sciousness. When  attempting  to  remove, 
for  example,  a  false  auto-suggestion- 
say,  a  fear  of  disease — we  are  far  more 
likely  to  succeed  if  we  do  not  content  our- 
selves with  injecting  a  new  and  more  use- 
ful auto-suggestion  into  the  hidden  stream 
of  our  subconscious  life,  but  try  also  to 
explain  how  the  harm  arose  and  how 
similar  mistakes  can  be  avoided,  not  only 
by  counter-suggestions  but  by  side-track- 
ing the  whole  miserable  affair  and  by  let- 
ting a  new  interest  occupy  the  mind.  To 
crowd  out  fear  by  the  heat  of  interest  in 
new  work  or  in  our  friends,  is  also  to  give 
ourselves  the  best  chance  of  receiving  help- 
ful suggestions  by  the  way.  Keeping  in 
mind,  therefore,  this  proviso,  I  venture  to 
offer  a  few  practical  hints : 

1.  Except  in  purely  moral  and  spir- 
itual   troubles,    it   is   inadvisable   to   try 


SELF-SUGGESTION          41 

to  cure  one's  self  by  auto-suggestion  with- 
out at  the  same  time  benefiting  by  the 
advice  of  a  physician.  The  physician, 
however,  ought  to  be  a  man  who  has  re- 
ceived a  training  in  abnormal  psychology. 
The  physician  who  is  pre-occupied  with 
physical  and  organic  diseases  as  a  rule  has 
no  time  for  delicate  psychological  an- 
alyses. He  probably  has  never  heard  of 
"  strangulated  emotions,"  "  unconscious 
automatisms,"  or  "  dissociated  states  of 
consciousness." 

2.  The  suggestions  to  be  offered  by 
one's  self  to  one's  self  should  be  simple 
in  character,  consisting  of  a  few  brief, 
clear  sentences. 

3.  It  is  better  not  to  begin  with  a  state- 
ment which  your  mind  rejects  as  untrue, 
but  to  paint  such  an  ideal  condition  as  one 
may  reasonably  hope  to  realize  in  a  short 
time. 

4.  The  suggestions  should  be  repeated, 
not  with  anxiety  or  with  vehemence,  but 
very  gently,  so  that  one  may  fall  asleep 
while  repeating  them. 


42          SELF-SUGGESTION 

5.  The  more  faith  the  subject  has  in 
the  suggestive  method,  the  better  results 
he  may  expect.    Therefore,  he  should  first 
of  all  convince  himself  theoretically  of 
the   power   of   suggestion   by   reading   a 
sound  scientific  discussion  of  the  subject.17 

6.  The  sufferer  ought  not  to  allow  him- 
self to  be  discouraged  by  failure  at  first. 
Beginnings     are     always     difficult,     and 
especially  is  this  true  in  the  case  of  habits. 
Let  him  be  patient  and  systematic  in  the 
use  of  self-suggestion,  and  he  has  every 
reason  to  hope  for  the  dissipation  of  the 
milder  nervous  states,  or  for  the  develop- 
ment   of   unsuspected    moral    and   intel- 
lectual qualities.     Emerson  has  said  that 
the  education  of  tEeTwill  is  the  object  of 
our  existence.     Self-suggestion  is  one  of 
the  most  powerful  agencies  at  our  disposal 
for  the   development  of  will-power,  and 
will-power  is  the  secret  of  success,  of  true 
happiness,    and    of    influence    over    our 
fellows. 


APPENDIX 

NOTES    AND    ILLUSTRATIONS 

1.  "  We  do  not  know  why  a  subject  obeys 
any  suggestion  that  may  be  made  to  him,  or 
how  he  obeys  it.  We  do  not  know  this  even 
when  the  suggestion  bears  upon  some  easy 
external  matter.  Still  deeper  is  the  mystery 
when  the  suggestion  is  an  organic  or  thera- 
peutic command.  ...  I  define  suggestion  as 
a  successful  appeal  to  the  subliminal  self."- 
"  The  nascent  life  of  each  of  us  is  perhaps 
a  fresh  draft, — the  continued  life  is  an  ever 
varying  draft, — upon  the  cosmic  energy.  In 
that  environing  energy — call  it  by  what  name 
we  will — we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being ; 
and  it  may  well  be  that  certain  dispositions  of 
mind,  certain  phases  of  personality,  may  draw 
in  for  the  moment  from  that  energy  a  fuller 
vitalizing  stream.  .  .  .  There  will  be  effective 
therapeutic  or  ethical  self-suggestion  whenever 
by  any  artifice  subliminal  attention  to  a  bodily 
43 


44  APPENDIX 

function  or  to  a  moral  purpose  is  carried  to 
some  unknown  pitch  of  intensity  which  draws 
energy  from  the  metethereal  world."  (Myers, 
Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily 
Death,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  153  and  218.) 

2.  The   word   "  auto-suggestion  "    is   a   bar- 
barism, being  a  mixture  of  Greek  and  Latin.    A 
linguistic  purist  would  say  "  ipse-suggestion." 
"  Self-suggestion  "  is  more  convenient  and  in- 
telligible. 

3.  Marcinowski,    Im    Kampf    um    Gesunde 
Nerven,  p.  100. 

4.  The  Psychological  Phenomena  of   Chris- 
tianity, p.  213. 

5.  Dubois,  The  Psychic  Treatment  of  Nerv- 
ous Disorders,  p.  167. 

6.  At  the  basis   of  the  phenomena  of  faith 
healing   in   all   its   forms,   Pagan,   Jewish,   and 
Christian,  from  time  immemorial,  must  be  recog- 
nized an  clement  of  self-suggestion.     One  strik- 
ing example  is  given  in  the  New  Testament  in 
the  story  of  the  healing  of  the  woman  with  an 
issue  of  blood.     Matt.  ix.  20-22 ;  Mark  xxv.  34  ; 
Luke   viii.    43-48.      The    sufferer    in    this    case 
shared  the  superstitious  notions  of  her  time,  that 
healing  virtue  belonged  to  the  garments  which 
the  Great  Physician  wore.     If  only  she  could 


APPENDIX  45 

touch  the  hem  of  His  garment,  she  felt  she  could 
be  made  whole,  and  this  belief  so  powerfully 
acted  on  her  psychical  energies  that  she  was 
made  whole.  It  will  be  observed,  however,  that 
Christ  will  not  allow  her  to  go  away  with  this 
superstitious  idea.  He  would  have  her  trust  in 
Himself  and  His  gracious  message,  not  in  His 
clothes.  A  striking  parallel  to  this  incident  is 
found  in  the  Talmud,  where  a  woman  suffering 
from  an  issue  of  blood  is  told  to  seat  herself  at 
the  cross-roads,  and  to  cry  aloud,  "  Let  thine 
issue  of  blood  be  stopped." 

7.  Hypnotism,  5th  ed.,  p.  70. 

8.  Nerves  in  Disorder,  pp.  123,  124. 

""9.  Dr.  M.  L.  Holbrook,  Editor  of  the 
'"Herald  of  Health,"  in  a  letter  dated  July 
30,  1884,  writes:  "In  the  spring  of  1870,  I 
had  an  attack  of  acute  bronchitis,  which  was 
very  severe,  and  from  the  fact  that  I  had  had 
a  similar  attack  every  winter  and  spring  for 
several  years,  I  felt  considerable  alarm  and  be- 
lieved it  would  ultimately  become  chronic  and 
perhaps  terminate  my  life.  ...  In  this  de- 
pressed condition,  I  fell  into  a  sleep  which  was 
not  very  profound,  and  the  following  circum- 
stance, which  is  still  fresh  in  my  mind,  appeared 
to  take  place.  My  sister,  who  had  been  dead 


46  APPENDIX 

more  than  twenty  years,  and  whom  I  had  almost 
forgotten,  came  to  my  bedside  and  said:  '  Don't 
worry  about  your  health,  we  have  come  to  cure 
you.  There  is  much  yet  for  you  to  do  in  the 
world.'  Then  she  vanished  and  my  brain  seemed 
to  be  electrified  as  if  by  a  shock  from  a  battery, 
only  it  was  not  painful,  but  delicious.  The 
shock  spread  downwards,  and  over  the  chest 
and  lungs  it  was  very  strong.  From  here  it 
extended  to  the  extremities,  where  it  appeared 
like  a  delightful  glow.  I  awoke  almost  immedi- 
ately and  found  myself  well.  Since  then  I  have 
never  had  an  attack  of  the  disease."  (Myers, 
Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily 
Death,  Vol.  I.,  p.  370.) 

The  power  of  dreams  to  cause  nervous  trou- 
bles is  an  established  fact.  "  I  have  seen  paral- 
ysis of  the  right  arm  occur  in  a  little  girl  who 
dreamed  she  had  defended  her  dog  when  attacked 
by  a  cow,  and  had  struck  blow  after  blow  at  the 
aggressor."  (Dubois,  Psychic  Treatment  of 
Nervous  Disorders,  p.  374.) 

10.  Therapeutique    Suggestive,    by    A.    A. 
Liebeault,  pp.  17-37. 

11.  The  Rev.  Dr.  L.  W.  Batten,  the  well- 
known  Old  Testament  scholar,  writes  me  under 
date  February  4,  1909: — "I  used  to  get  up 


APPENDIX  47 

probably  on  an  average  of  three  times  a  week 
with  a  troublesome  headache  and  at  times  it 
would  prostrate  me  for  the  day.  For  many 
months  I  have  been  almost  relieved  of  this  trou- 
ble. The  relief  was  due  to  two  things:  first,  a 
firm  conviction  that  the  headaches  were  unneces- 
sary, and,  second,  the  cultivation  of  a  serene 
spirit,  especially  at  bedtime.  Self-suggestion, 
when  the  headache  was  actually  in  evidence, 
worked  pretty  well." 

Johannes  Miiller,  perhaps  the  greatest  phys- 
iologist of  the  nineteenth  century,  stated  the 
principle  of  expectant  attention  thus :  "  Any 
state  of  the  body  which  is  conceived  to  be  ap- 
proaching, and  which  is  expected  with  certain 
confidence  and  certainty  of  the  occurrence,  will 
be  very  prone  to  ensue  as  the  mere  result  of  the 
idea  if  it  do  not  lie  beyond  the  bounds  of  pos- 
sibility." Quoted  by  Hack  Tuke,  Illustrations 
of  the  Influence  of  the  Mind  upon  the  Body, 
p.  36. 

Dr.  Cutten,  who  quotes  Miiller,  adds :  "  Not- 
withstanding this  shrewd  observation,  a  quarter 
of  a  century  passed  before  much  or  any  use  was 
made  of  it  as  a  therapeutic  agent,  and  even  to- 
day, although  the  evidence  is  overwhelming, 
some  people  look  upon  it  as  a  superstition," 


48  APPENDIX 

Psychological  Phenomena  of  Christianity,  p. 
213. 

12.  Have  You  a  Strong  Witt?  by  Charles 
Godfrey  Leland,  pp.  32,  33,  and  34. 

"  It  is  an  easy  matter  to  create  a  strong  will 
or  strengthen  that  which  we  have  to  a  marvelous 
extent ;  yet  he  who  would  do  this  must  first  give 
his  attention  firmly  and  fixedly  to  his  intent  or 
want,  for  which  purpose  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary that  he  should  first  know  his  own  mind  re- 
garding what  he  means  to  do,  and  therefore 
meditate  upon  it,  not  dreamily  or  vaguely,  but 
earnestly." 

"  There  are  millions  of  people  who  suffer  from 
irritability,  want  of  self-control,  loquacity,  evil 
in  many  forms,  or  nerves,  who  would  fain  control 
themselves  and  stop  it  all.  Moralists  think  that 
for  this  it  is  enough  to  convince  their  reason, 
but  this  rarely  avails.  Man  may  know  that  he 
is  wrong,  yet  not  be  able  to  reform.  Now,  what 
he  wants  is  to  have  his  attention  fixed  long 
enough  to  form  a  new  habit.  Find  out  how  this 
can  be  done,  and  it  may  in  many  cases  be  the 
simplest  and  the  most  mechanical  thing  in  the 
world  to  cure  him." 

"  Resolve  before  going  to  sleep  that  if  there 
be  anything  whatever  for  you  to  do,  which  re- 


APPENDIX  49 

quires  will  or  resolution,  be  it  to  undertake 
repulsive  or  hard  work  or  duty,  to  face  a  dis- 
agreeable person,  to  fast,  or  to  make  a  speech,  to 
say  '  No  '  to  anything,  in  short  to  keep  up  to 
the  mark  or  make  any  kind  of  effort,  that  you 
will  do  it — as  calmly  and  unthinkingly  as  may 
be.  Do  not  desire  to  do  it  sternly  or  forcibly 
or  in  spite  of  obstacles — but  simply  and  coolly 
make  up  your  mind  to  do  it — and  it  will  much 
more  likely  be  done.  And  it  is  absolutely  true — 
crede  expert o — that  if  persevered  in,  this  willing 
yourself  to  will  by  easy  impulse  unto  impulse 
given,  will  lead  to  marvelous  and  most  satisfac- 
tory results,"  pp.  17,  22,  37. 

13.  Why  Worry?  pp.  159,  160.     Compare 
Lyman  Powell's  Art  of  Natural  Sleep. 

14.  The   Saints'   Everlasting  Rest    and   the 
New  Whole  Duty  of  Man.    Quoted  by  Winslow, 
Obscure  Diseases  of  the  Brain,  pp.  529,  530. 

15.  See  Psychotherapy    in    Its    Relation  to 
Religion. 

16.  See    Freud,    Psychopathologie    des    All- 
tagsleben. 

17.  The  reader  may  be  referred  to  Tuckey's 
Psychotherapeutics,  Chapters  II  and  III,  and 
Note    11,    and   to    Chapters    III    and   IV,   and 
Appendix,  in  Religion  and  Medicine. 


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